Love Note #13: The deaf and hard of hearing world-wide look to Rochester to improve their lives

Name:Wanda Dulski
Years in Rochester: 31 +
Current Home: 27 years in Pittsford

Rochester Darling, 

You're a classy Northern lady graced with southern manners with a dash of Midwestern values located in the likable four seasons weather of the Genesee Valley region .

My going on 32 years commitment with you parallels your inclusion of National Technical Institute of the Deaf (NTID) into your overall community.  Integration of deaf and hearing hasn't been easy on either of us.  As one person of hearing suggested, us deaf, "always want more & are never satisfied." I could say the same about Rochester -- always asking full fee for services, taxes and an expectation that I be fully present without expecting accessibility in return.

NTID started out isolated & segregated from Rochester; a reflection of times, values and dictation of governmental funds.  Your community's preferential treatment of hearing was obvious despite my being required to pay the same for services, health care, performances, learning and recreational activities.  Most of your barriers continue to stem from pre-supposed loss of revenue, perceived limited resources and fear of being spread even thinner.  You still make the mistake of short-changing our contributions, energy, devotion, faithfulness and tax dollars. 

Still, over the past 30 years I've seen your attitude change from rigidity and blatant, offended refusal to ignorance and resistance and then leading into modification and tolerance.  I'm beginning to see your awareness, accessibility and inclusion spread out more evenly and even as far away as Naples, NY.

Nationwide, 34 million Americans are deaf or hard of hearing. Rochester set the baseline back in the late 1960s when Lyndon B. Johnson personally advocated for and established the National Technical Institute of the Deaf.  The deaf and hard of hearing world-wide look to Rochester to improve their lives.  They look to you to show what access, equality and fairness mean.  Assuring basic human rights for all deaf and hard of hearing is vitally important to all Americans.  Its not a matter of whether the hearing will have a hearing problem, its when and how severe it will be. Rochester is the trailblazer for the rights of Deaf and Caption-Users alike. 

Most Rochesterians are able to finger-spell and sign a few phrases or at least, know now to slow down and face me. I've become courageous about stepping up to ask for what I need.  Both of us have gotten over our shyness.  You call me one of yours.  My special name for you is, "Home, Sweet Rochester."

L, Wanda

Love Note #12: You fostered in me a love of cities

Name: Andrew Cutillo
I am: A recent UofR graduate who got to know the city as a student, intern, volunteer, motorist, concert-goer, Wegmans patron, and more.

Years in Rochester: 4

Current home (away from home): Washington, D.C.

My Dear Rochester,

You filled my head with knowledge and you fostered in me a love of cities. You gave me conversations in cafés and music in the streets. Your oldest relics whispered to me of industry and wealth; of civil rights and equality; of culture and the arts. These voices still reverberate, from renovated concert hall to abandoned subway, and the stories they tell will always serve as the exposition from which future narrators craft their tales. 

With all my summers away, I don't know how to pin our relationship (on-again, off again?). Perhaps I have more of my own story to craft with you, perhaps not. However the plot unfolds, I am so thankful for our time together. You are truly remarkable, and you welcomed me with such open arms. You let me march in your parades, chow down in your diners, and shop in your local "Oh-wow-is-this-really-a-grocery-store?!"

I will always have a reason to return to my "beloved college home beside the Genesee," but you lend extra pull to that cause. I will continue to keep a keen eye towards your growth, and look forward to the many great things ahead for you! I remain,

Very truly yours,

Andrew Cutillo

Love Note #11: An Apology

Name: Amanda Geraghty

I am: 25 years old, and Weekend Assignment Editor at 13WHAM news

Years in Rochester: 23

Current home: Gates-grew up in the South Wedge

To the city I love, my first love, the one undeniable love that will follow me all the days of my life:

I'm sorry.

I have been awful to you. While you have held me since birth, and all my 25 years, I have not been faithful.

I have walked your sidewalks, drank in your bars, laid in your parks, and kissed under your street lights. I have laughed and loved on your streets.

I have abandoned you.

I went West, and loved another city, all but replacing you in my heart. Then, when that city betrayed me and I couldn't bear to be there, I ran to you, and you enveloped me again, without judgement.

I fell in love with you in a whole new way. There are new parts of you to enjoy, and my favorite places feel more like home than ever before.

There are parts of you that are broken and need mending. Just like me.

Together, we can fix our broken parts.

I would be a rudderless ship without you. A wanderer with no real place to anchor.

I have been a selfish child, and I'm sorry. I have learned how to truly appreciate you, and no city can ever replace you. I know that now.

You are scarred. You are burned. You are broken.

But, my sweet Rochester, you are so beautiful. Everyday, you somehow steal my heart and make it you're again.

As I sit here on South Avenue in my favorite neighborhood and watch the cars go by, you inspire me.

You are stronger than I could ever hope to be.

Just the mere fact that you accepted me after leaving you and being unfaithful is humbling.

But you have allowed me to succeed-fostering new friendships, building a new relationship (that I have you to thank for), giving me an education, and helping me find a career.

All those things would never be possible in the same place without you.

You made me who I am.

Thank you.

Rochester, my darling, my love, I'm so sorry for what I have done to you. I will never be able to make up for what I have done.

But if you let me try, we can both be stronger, and heal.

All my love, all my days.

Amanda Geraghty

Love Note #10: I know I love you when we're apart

Name: Michael Brown

I Am: Originally from Irondequoit but now living in the city and working to complete my Ph.D. in American history at the U of R

Years in Rochester: The first eighteen years of my life and the last ten, with a five-year  departure in the middle

Current Home: East Avenue near Culver Road

Dear Rochester,

I feel a bittersweet kind of love for you when I am literally flying away. On all those weeks when I’m tangled up in town—dashing from the U of R to the public market to the Rundel to Charlotte—you feel so full. You’re full of people that I love, full of places that I cherish, full of memories in which the story of my life is etched. 

And then there I am speeding down the runway at your grandly named Greater Rochester International Airport, hangars and houses rushing by as I look out the little oval window of my plane bound for JFK, ATL, EWR, ORD, or BWI.  We’re quickly above the trees, and I see the cars on Chili Avenue or 390. There’s the dome of Rush Rhees Library and the auburn-tiled brilliance of Monroe Community Hospital. Then the little plane banks and curves, circling around downtown and exposing a panorama that opens all the way to Lake Ontario’s unbounded bluish-gray expanse. A second later—just a second—we’re over farmers’ fields: green in summer, golden brown in spring and autumn, white in winter. The city that seemed so full is quickly swallowed up by the vastness of the land around it. On overcast days, the disappearance is even quicker. I see your skyline for just a moment before a curtain of clouds closes over the scene.

How compact you are!  How much it seems, from that airplane window, that I can hold all of you—memories, people, and places—in the hollow of my hand.  

              Sincerely,
              Michael

Source: http://www.city-data.com/picfilesv/picv25424.php

Love Note #9: I want to thank you for being my happy place

Name: Mary Staropoli
I am:  Mother of two beautiful daughters (9 & 6 yrs old), wife of a pretty awesome husband, member of a kick-ass family, neighborhood and city enthusiast, non-profit administrative professional (currently working for Rochester Downtown Development Corporation)
Years in rochester:  18 childhood years + 11 adulthood years = 29 years
Current home:  Highland Park neighborhood

Dear Rochester,

I write this love note sitting on a bench in Highland Park, my happy place. In fact, this whole city is my happy place. But I haven't always thought of you this way. I’m a Rochester native, born and raised here. I was the product of a self-doubting city (did they teach it in school?), and when I left for college, I was one of those people who said, "I'll never come back here." Rochester was for losers. I was going out into the big wide world and was going to stay there, thank you very much. I stayed away summers, and didn't spend more than a few nights back home over school breaks. I spent about 10 yrs living in the fine city of Boston, a place with a constant hum, with national sports teams, with shopping and culture galore. But it was a lonely place, full of transients, and community was hard to come by. I didn't know my neighbors and they didn't know me. When I went to the grocery store, the chances of running into a familiar face were slim to none. I was anonymous, disconnected. The decision to return to Rochester (dragging along my Boston native husband) was mainly due to my large and loving family calling me, and because it was a place we could afford to buy a nice house where we would start a family.

Returning as an adult, I began to see Rochester through a different lens, and what I saw was...
 -A town full of neighborhoods like mine (Highland Park) where people are connected to each other, and passionate about where they live
 -A town small enough to see people you know everywhere you go (and have fun figuring out your degrees of separation), but big enough that you will always keep meeting new and interesting people
 -A town that's "Big enough to get Springsteen. Small enough to get tickets.*"
 -A town with more festivals and culture than I could ever take in
 -A town where I can take my kids to a great ballpark without breaking the bank
 -A town with beautiful parks to enjoy, and in short driving distance to gorgeous natural sights and places to visit
 -A town with short commutes, where everything I need is in a 5-10 minute radius, so I get to spend my time doing things I care to do
 -A town with four unique seasons, where I've learned to embrace the beauty and fun of winter

I could go on.

Over the years I developed first a defensiveness, then an outright pride in my hometown. In fact, put me on a plane seated next to a stranger and I'm a traveling promotional advertisement for the place.

So I'm writing to say that I'm sorry I ever wrote you off, Rochester. You're one cool chick. And I want to thank you for being my happy place.

Love,

Mary

*Taken from a VisitRochester promo ad

Love Note #8: I have left you but I'll always love you.

Name: Evan Lowenstein

I am: Dad, husband, from Painted Post in the Southern Tier, eternally awestruck by nature and humanity and committed to preserving both"

Years in Rochester: 1999-2013

Current Home: Charlottesville, Virginia

Dear Rochester, 

I have left you but I'll always love you. 

I will miss...

...the peace of Highland Park under a blanket of fresh snow

...bumping into friends at the Market

...apple shopping at the Market on a crisp fall day, coffee in hand 

...the smiles and laughter of kids busting through the doors of School 23 

...the kindness of my neighbors on my beloved Arlington Street 

...my beautiful--and affordable--masterpiece of an old house  

...the cooling breezes off the Lake on a hot summer day 

...the breathtaking beech trees 

...greeting folks on their porches on a sultry summer night 

...saying I share a hometown with Frederick Douglass and Susan B. Anthony 

...the civic pride and spirit that makes Rochester so special 

Thank you for fourteen wonderful years. I hope I gave as much as I received. 

Evan Lowenstein

Love Note #7: I'm destined to be with you.

I am: Roc_Guardian
Current Home: Monroe Village
Years in Rochester: For life, except for college 

My Dearest Rochester,

I don't mean to be too forward, but I think I'm destined to be with you. This might seem silly coming from someone of my youth, but I have never been more sure of anything in my life. We've known each other for a long time, and the I older I get, the deeper my feelings for you grow.

They say that absence makes the heart grow fonder, and I've found that to be true. Every time I came home from college to see you, I realized why I could never really leave. When all the girls I met were stuck-up, selfish and boring, you were wholesome, down to earth, and full of surprises.   

So I've returned home, planted my roots, and give my life up to you. After this day, there is no woman in this world who could tear me from your side. I just hope that you can share with me your many ways of love, and we can grow old together, basking in the light of a world we have worked so hard to improve.  

Yours eternally, 

ROC_Guardian